Thursday, August 17, 2017, 17:07 On Thursday, August 17, Jerusalem Magistrate Court Judge Shmuel Herbst rejected the police demand to extend the remand of two minors, both Bat Ayin residents, aged approximately 14 and 16 by five days.
Policeman in detainee’s home; Photo credit: Honenu
The incident began on the afternoon of Wednesday, August 16 when the police brought three buses driven by Arabs to the community of Bat Ayin in the Etzion Bloc. The buses were parked for a long time in the center of the community in an apparent attempt by the police to provoke youths into clashing with the drivers. Several plain-clothes police detectives and policemen sat in every bus and nearby Yassam (special forces) and other policemen were waiting.
During the course of the operation plain-clothes policemen burst into a home, entered rooms and detained two minors. The policemen violently laid them down on the floor and beat them in front of one of their fathers, who is handicapped and wheelchair-bound (See photo above). The policemen claimed that a short time before they entered the house one of Arab drivers had been assaulted and the minors were connected to the incident.
At a deliberation the following day Judge Herbst ordered the release of the minors on condition of posting bail and several days of house arrest. Judge Herbst agreed to a police request to delay carrying out the decision so that the police could appeal to the district court.
Honenu Attorney Adi Kedar, who represented the minors: “Instead of eliminating the terror on the roads of Yehuda and Shomron and the constant danger to which thousands of residents of the area are subjected, the Israeli Police are busying themselves with provocations, which the courts have already strongly censured. I am pleased that the court rejected the police demand to extend the remand of the minors and ordered their release.”
Honenu would like to call to our readers’ attention that the courts and the public have in the past severely criticized the use of soldiers disguised as Arabs in order provoke reactions from Jews. The Yehuda and Shomron Police have staged such incidents in Havat Gilad, Susiya, Havat Har Sinai, Givat Ronen, Kochav HaShahar, Adei Ad, Geulat Tzion and elsewhere in the Shilo Bloc region.